Silicon photonic devices are devices that use silicon as an optical medium in a chip. Silicon photonic devices can operate in the infrared wavelength region, which is typically used in fiber optic telecommunications systems. Silicon photonic devices are made using existing semiconductor fabrication techniques. For example, silicon can be deposited onto a layer of silica to create silicon-on-insulator (SOI) devices. Silicon is also typically used as the substrate for electrical integrated circuits. As such, a hybrid silicon device can be fabricated that comprises both optical components and electronic components that are integrated onto a single chip. A hybrid silicon device allows electrical data operations and provides optical interconnects that allow for faster data transfer between or within chips.
Silicon photonic devices use photonic laser sources as optical signal sources (e.g., light sources). Typically, photonic laser sources cannot be monolithically integrated into a silicon chip, so an external photonic laser is needed. Surface grating is commonly used in a silicon chip to input light from a photonic laser. The grating coupling light is in an incident angle in a nearly vertical orientation to the surface of the silicon chip. Some applications require using silicon photonic devices in non-hermetic packaging, however, packaging silicon photonic devices to work with grating couplers using non-hermetic packaging can be challenging. Some existing silicon photonic devices use light sources that are mounted horizontally along the surface of the silicon chip. These silicon photonic devices comprise a lid that is coated in a metallic material coating (e.g., gold plating). Light is reflected off of an interior surface of the lid to redirect the light into the silicon chip. Testing these silicon photonic devices is difficult because the lid is required for operation and there is no way to access the enclosed components. As such, special tools are often required to test existing silicon photonic devices.